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I guess you all know the red Passenger Train 7938 set:

Nice train, but it lacks one thing in particular (if you're into realism): doors. Now I could have just replaced one window in the middle carriage with swinging doors, and that's it - but I wanted more...

The overall shape of 7938 reminds a lot of the Bombardier Talent (see Wikipedia), so I took this train as a model for my mod - I guess the Lego designer might have, too... The Talent comes in several variants, and that doesn't only concern the number of carriages (2, 3, or 4), so I had some liberty in what I did. (I've also got to correct an earlier complaint about 7938, like many Lego trains, lacking length - 3 carriages is quite realistic for such a local/regional train, even though the carriages themselves are a bit short.)

In the end, I made these changes:
- Carriage length increased by 8 (middle) or 9 (front/back carriage);
- One set of doors per carriage;
- Jacobs bogies (shared bogies);
- Varying floor level;
- Continuous black stripe around the windows;
- Folded connection between carriages;
- And minor things.
- And headlights.

The first draft of the bogies (left) were just as high as the normal ones. Using the lower of the two white plate levels as a floor, the Technic plate (for the pins) wasn't very stable, though, and I preferred to add a red line below, too (makes it look more like a unity), so I made a lower bogie (right) using cross-axle wheels and that long decorative piece; the Technic plate is now on the red level and solidly connected to the white floor.

Unfortunately, now that all wheels were on cross-axles, the motor had serious problems pulling the entire train. So I took the steel axles from the 3-wide wheel holders and put them through Technic pins to make the hole smaller; the wheels got some sideways play this way (due to the decorative thing's holes), but they work well, and the motor can pull the train again at high speed.

For the connection between the carriages, I had the idea to take some (black) paper and fold it; maybe I should rework them a bit and make new ones, since the folding isn't that well and one side is torn a bit, but overall, I think they work quite well:

The major thing I didn't copy from the Talent (along with minor things like exhausts) is the front and back - reason being that (1) I like the Lego front, and (2) it would be quite hard to add a connector that would work and look good, given how far the head protrudes beyond the track in curves:

Now for the doors. First idea was swinging doors using "robot arms" as in the next picture. They allow a level exit for high platforms, but cost space inside, and red and black bricks have to be swung, too. (6 studs white are too wide for proportions.) Then I tried another idea that I finally decided to use: sliding doors which leave a lot of space inside, but need some extra part of the wall to silde too, and have a step down to the platform (which may actually be an advantage). And I think they're cooler. :)

Later, I removed the door-rail handles (gray in the photos above, supposed to be replaced by white) because it looks better without them. (And I can still open the doors with my fingernails or push them open from the inside.)

All doors open:

Now welcome on board, but don't crawl through the gap under the floor: ;)

The interior:

I turned the IR receiver around so I could save some space for the doors; it's a bit cramped with the cables, though. The lights (8870) are connected to the other channel; connecting them to the battery box directly or via extension didn't work because there's too little space for all the cords.

The front carriage features larger space for bikes, the middle one has a few tables, and the back one just seats.

By the way, when I got the last two big boxes of my old Lego from my parents' home over Christmas, I was surprised to find a completely assembled classic 7740 engine in one of them (only the pantographs had come off):

I like your take a great deal, I've been wanting to see the pictures of it for ages, shame only the one survives the system crash. Your window level difference is better than mine, I wanted to move the door to make it more obvious but it'd have meant being more thorough in hunting the right pieces.

I like it

Rtas 'Vadum

June 1, 2011

Very nice looking! In my opinion, the 7938 is the best looking passenger train we've gotten in years (other than the Emerald Night, of course, but that's more of an AFOL train, not a city train). I've been wondering how you managed the shared bogies. I cannot seem to get mine to work. Do the pins go into a train baseplate or are they loose in a 1 or 2 x whatever hole?

Quoting Rtas 'Vadum
I've been wondering how you managed the shared bogies. I cannot seem to get mine to work. Do the pins go into a train baseplate or are they loose in a 1 or 2 x whatever hole?

No, I'm not using train baseplates, I built the base with regular plates – and a Technic plate (2x6 or so) into whose hole the pins go. Admittedley, that's not the most solid connection between the plates, the Technic plate may come off when you want to remove the bogie. But it's certainly solid enough when the train is running.

Thanks!
– I've rebuilt the old coaches now too; maybe I'll modernize the interior a bit, and I'm thinking about getting more coaches (or their special parts) over time whenever I can get them cheap on ebay or Bricklink. I'm not in a hurry. :)
– Also, my modular bank is almost done, I'm just waiting for some missing floor tiles which should arrive from PaB next week. And I got more ideas than time...

I love the accordion pleats very realistic!
I made a dream of yours come true Andres the secretary got her flowers and all the bank employees now wear uniforms.
Please check out my MINI FIGURES MY WAY section I have now married by adaption some Advent Calendar stuff with the mini-figures and now offer a challenge to all who see them! Can you create a 4x4 vignette? Well I did for 30 out of the 48 collectable figures and 6 of my mods on them!
Please stop by!
I am trying my best to be as good as you Lego Vets!

wow! what you did on this is stunning! i mean, the shared buggies? longer wagons? so deep, i m not sure about the paper sheets between the wagons, i don t plan on inter wagon passage, i find it s not worth it, and i have 3 wagons, but, i m glad you did, as i know now what it looks like, as i considered it for a while, your work definitively inspires me to do my doors, but, i doubt i ll ever get that deep into the build, bravo!

Wow! Very good Train! Excellent work on the doors! I am also from Germany and i know this train also, because it drives in our region, and i must say that your train is a lot better tha the normal set!

A fabulously realistic looking train. You have a very good eye for realizing details in your models. I am from Germany, so I know the basis for your model:)... Love the curved front of it, BTW, as well as the awesome working slide doors. Anyways, great stuff! Best regards, Steffen

Bellows: For now, I just forced a relatively thin paper into about the right shape and attached it to 1x4 tiles with double-sided adhesive tape. Marvin's folding technique looks so much better... gotta use that. :) ---
Doors: I forgot to mention above that I added a few layers of adhesive tape to the 2x2 tiles on the inner part of the doors to make them thicker so they don't slide out on their own (especially in curves) – which also makes it harder to pull them out; it does work with fingernails in the window frames, but it's easier to remove the roof and just push the doors.
Well, adding something that sticks out (rails, clips, whatever) makes it easy, but the looks of a flat side are more important to me than playablility. :)

I like your creation very much, it's much closer to a real train. So I showed it to my son. Now he wants me to convert my 7938 also. How did you do the bellows? Like Marvin (http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/81514)?
The doors are brilliant! Is it easy to operate them?